Arbonne Reviews

Have you heard of Arbonne international mlm? Perhaps you’re looking for Arbonne reviews and asking is it a legit online business to join?

In this review we are going to walk through the workings of Arbonne mlm and find out if it is a good multi level marketing scheme to join.

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Table of Contents

What Is Arbonne MLM?

Arbonne International LLC is an international multi level marketing company that was founded in 1975.

Arbonne creates self-care, health and beauty products through research and innovative science. They specialize in creating cruelty free, gluten free, vegan skincare products that follow a strict Safety and Purity Ingredient policy.

It is a direct sales company that uses network marketing to sell its products. This includes an extensive network of independent consultants around the world who advertise and sell Arbonne products online.

Arbonne’s headquarters are found in Irvine, California.

It reminds me of other similar companies like Amway and Bonanza that have been quite successful with the same business model.

Arbonne History: How it all began

Arbonne was founded by Norwegian entrepreneur Petter Mørck in Switzerland before he brought it to the United States in 1980. It is named after the swiss village of Arbon.

Petter Mørck had worked in the Norwegian skincare industry from 1965. In 1975, Petter felt the ingredients used were harmful to the skin so he moved to Arbon and started working on his own skincare line with Pierre Bottiglieri, an employee of Laboratoires Cosmetiques Arval.

According to the story published by Arbonne, Mørck and Bottiglieri joined forces to create a line of products that did not contain any petroleum or animal products.

According to another version of their story, Mørck purchased the formulations from Laboratoires Cosmetiques Arval, which sold formulations for rebranding.

The company’s first headquarters were located in Orem,Utah before they were moved to Irvine, California in 1984.

Mørck continued to be active in the company until his unfortunate death in 2008. Stian Mørck, Petter’s son, is currently the VP Brand Ambassador of Arbonne International.

The company’s first president was Rita Davenport and she served from 1991 to 2011.

Arbonne later became a subsidiary of Levlad, Inc. around the year 2004, which then became the primary manufacturer of all Arbonne products.

In that year, the company made $200 million in sales.

In 2005, Harvest Partners bought both Arbonne and Levlad and renamed the new merged company Natural Products Group, LLC.

In that year alone, there were 434,000 arbonne consultants which increased to 612,000 in 2006.

In 2006, the company established distribution centers in Greenwood, Indiana while already having one set up in Mississauga, Ontario. Arbonne also opened for business in Canada, then Australia in 2007, and the United Kingdom in 2008.

Between 2007 and 2009, Arbonne independent consultants fell from 1.3 million to under 800,000.

In 2010, Natural Products group declared bankruptcy and Harvest Partners were no longer involved. Arbonne was then owned by a combination of private equity firms and banks.

In 2014, Arbonne was launched in Poland, then in both New Zealand and Taiwan in 2016.

Later on in February 2018, Natural Products Group agreed to sell Arbonne and Nature’s Gate to Groupe Rocher in Paris.

As of 2017, Arbonne claims to have nearly 320,000 independent consultants selling their skin care and weight management products all over the world.

What Products Does Arbonne Sell?

Arbonne sells skincare, weight loss, health and beauty products. It is like Monat or Farmasi Makeup which also sell such products.

The company claims to produce world-class, science-backed products that are cruelty free, gluten free, and non-GMO.

Arbonne products do not contain artificial sweeteners, colors, fragrances, parabens, SLS, and harsh chemicals.

The products can be divided into the following categories:

Nutrition products

These products help consumers to lose weight and improve on hydration, immune support and digestive health. They are gluten free.

Some of the weight loss products include:

Herbal Detox Tea
Energy Fizz Sticks
Daily Protein Boost
Arbonne Essentials Protein Snack Bars
Protein shake Mix (which is soy free and gluten free)

The detox tea helps with bloating and has a gentle, sweet flavor.

The Energy fizz sticks contain guarana and green coffee bean thus providing 55mg of caffeine. This boosts your energy levels. The energy fizz sticks also contain green tea and increase alertness and mental performance.

Another popular arbonne product is the Arbonne Evolution. It is a metabolism support supplement that contains chromium, green tea, green coffee extract, cocoa powder, ginger extract powder, cayenne powder, black pepper powder, caffeine, and quercetin. Arbonne evolution encourages a healthy lifestyle and mainly aids in weight management.

Skincare products

Some of the Arbonne skin care products include:

Acne Treatment products
Face Masks
Arbonne Age well (Anti Aging Cream)
Eye Gels
Exfoliating creams
After Shave Lotion & Creams
Sensitive Skin Cleansers
Moisturizers
Arbonne RE9 Advanced Regenerating Toner (Skin Brightening Cream)

The skin products contain coconut oil, olive oil, jojoba oil and other essential oils improve skin smoothness and tend to sensitive skin.

The anti aging creams contain vitamin C that increases collagen production that diminishes aging signs on the skin, making it appear more firm.

Makeup products and accesories

These include:

Lipstick
Mascara
Eye Liners and eye makeup remover
Concealers
Eye Shadows
Make up cases and brushes

BAth and Body products

Bath and body products include aromatherapy, spa and personal care products like body treatments, scrubs and soaks. All the products are cruelty free.

Hair care products

Arbonne sells hair care products such as shampoo, conditioner, hair serum and hair treatment.

Arbonne reviews: How safe are the ingredients in Arbonne products?

There have been several complaints about the side effects caused by ingredients used to make arbonne products.

One of the main ingredients, glucomannan, used especially for weight loss products, causes bloating.

Having any severe adverse reactions could indicate a problem, so seek medical advice if you might be experiencing one.

There have also been some complaints about arbonne skincare product, arbonne age well, giving people dry skin.

Their oral supplements are also not FDA approved as the FDA does not approve oral supplements in the United States.

How to become an Arbonne consultant

To become an independent consultant, you need a sponsor; one of the arbonne consultants.

Using your sponsor’s code you can register online, or your sponsor could register you. The registration fees cost $49 and there is an annual renewal of $29.

This registration fee pays for your Arbonne Startnow Independent Consultant Start Up Kit, which includes the forms, catalogue, manual, workbook and welcome CD that you need to get started. You also become eligible for your 35 percent discount on arbonne product.

You could also first become one of arbonne’s preferred clients by paying a $29 startup fee. This makes you eligible for exclusive deals and special offers on Arbonne products.

After buying the starter products and samples, set up your arbonne website. Each independent consultant is offered one at a monthly fee by Arbonne.

Arbonne review: Social Media Presence

Since Arbonne product is only available online, the company needed to build their social media presence.

To increase arbonne sales, the company brought together the most elite members to work on their personal branding, increase unique content, and coordinate marketing strategies that increased individual leads and integrated intelligence with a new customer relationship management system.

Arbonne began extracting social media data at the individual consultant level to determine the true effectiveness of each independent consultant and their social performance. They were able to tailor social strategies for individuals and teams with minimal input from sales teams and interference in daily activities.

The mlm company was able to create a custom tool called the S4DC Social Media Performance Predictor(SMPP) after calculating overall reach, engagement and supporting audience data using simple code. They then repackaged it into simple directives that an arbonne consultant could use right away.

This custom tool utilizes Facebook Graph API and Pages using a standard social data collection module.

The information is then uploaded to a cloud-based module that allows real-time access to arbonne employees. They then calculate insights in a graphical format using the internally shared module.

This data is exported to an easy-to-use dashboard to help with marketing strategies, technology, sales, operations, and financial decisions in the company.

Arbonne was able to gain actionable best practices for their unique market position, which they were able to pass on to each individual consultant after creating weekly reports for their top sales team.

The company was able to work with each consultant to create personalized branding statements that complemented the corporate direction.

How to make money as an Arbonne consultant

Arbonne mlm is a direct sales company that sells products through network marketing. This means that an arbonne consultant mainly makes money through commissions from selling products.

Their is no compensation plan for recruiting consultants to the company.

As an arbonne consultant, you can earn money in the following ways:

1. Through your own direct sales

You earn a 35% commission on retail sales through your website and 15% commission on Preferred Client sales. This is paid weekly

2. Override commissions through your team.

You earn arbonne business commission from your team sales when you teach and train others to work their own Arbonne business. The more people you help, the more you earn.

This is paid monthly.

3. Cash bonuses at every level.

You are eligible to earn additional cash bonuses at every level; from Consultant to National Vice President. These are paid monthly.

4. Mercedes Benz Cash Bonus Program.

When you are promoted to Regional and National Vice President, Arbonne gives you a generous cash bonus to pay for a white Mercedes Benz of your choice!

Awards

Arbonne Consultants are eligible for various awards, incentives, and recognition programs in addition to the business opportunities.

These include:

District Manager

You get to earn $200/Month when you earn $5000 Group Volume and have 5 new arbonne Consultants with $150 PRV order in their start month in your personal district.

Area Manager

You earn $400/Month once you have $20,000 Group Volume and 10 new Independent Consultants with $150 PRV order in their start month, in your central area.

Regional Vice President

You earn $600/month after gaining $60,000 Group Volume and 30 new Independent Consultants with $150 PRV order in their start month, in your central region

Arbonne Business Practices

In January 2020, Arbonne earned the B Corporation certification.

B Corporation assesses the social and environmental performance of a company, as well as its transparency and accountability, and is the only certification of its kind.

It is a private certification for for-profit businesses that are separate from the legal designation of a Benefit Corporation.

The non profit B lab certify businesses for their measurable impact on people and the environment. I This is unlike traditional corporations as it forces the company to consider the impact of their decisions on all stakeholders: customers, workers, and communities, and the environment.

Arbonne has a “Green Will Call” shipping option where orders are placed in Arbonne recyclable cloth bags instead of boxes which can be picked up either at their Irvine or Indiana Will Call Center.

Arbonne review: Controversies and Scandals Arbonne is involved in.

Lawsuits

Various lawsuits have been filed against Arbonne concerning discrimination.

In April 2020, Arbonne received a warning letter from the US Federal Trade Commission in response to illegal health claims that were made by business opportunity participants or representatives related to Coronavirus as well as false claims about income made by Arbonne distributors.

In November 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana ruled that Arbonne International LLC had violated federal law. The company had previously refused to employ Lisa Wilson on the grounds of her disability (deafness).

Arbonne had to pay a US$30,000 settlement to Wilson and was required to institute non-discrimination policies and training.

In May 2017, Cynthia and Michael Dagnall raised a lawsuit against Arbonne alleging that the company was an illegal pyramid scheme. The Class Action Lawsuit was dismissed on March 20, 2018.

Rumors

A 2006 article in The Virginian-Pilot raised questioned AIRD’s lack of its own facilities, as well as the possibility that chemist Pierre Bottiglieri had worked for other companies besides Arbonne.

Recalls

In January 2009, Arbonne voluntarily recalled the production of lots of branded peanut butter cups due to the risk of Salmonella serotype Typhimurium contamination in peanut-based products shipped from a Georgia processing facility.

In September 2009, the company also voluntarily recalled a production lot of branded foaming sea salt scrub products due to the risk of contamination with Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria.

In January 2013, Health Canada advised a voluntary recall for one batch of branded facial moisturizer products for men due to Aerococcus viridans being found in the products after Arbonne tested the batch

In June 2016, Arbonne recalled multiple lots of branded liquid eyeliner as they contained unacceptable amounts of the bacteria Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Staphylococcus xylosus, and Staphylococcus lentus.

In October 2017, the ACCC recalled one lot of branded body wash products due to unsafe levels of Staphylococcus cohnii.

Pros of Arbonne mlm company

You are not required to carry an inventory
The products are guaranteed
Offers a lucrative commission-based system compensation plan
Sell products that promote healthy living

Cons of arbonne mlm company

You are not permitted to create your own online based presence
It caps your qualifying volume rewards
The products are expensive
There is a high failure rate for arbonne consultants
You need a referral to get started as an arbonne consultant.

Arbonne review: Is Arbonne a Pyramid Scheme?

A pyramid scheme recruits members by promising payments or services in exchange for enrolling others without providing investment options.

As the number of recruits increases, it becomes more difficult to recruit thus most members in the pyramid scheme are unable to make money as their income comes from the number of recruits.

In a pyramid scheme there is rarely any focus on the products, the ones on the bottom of the pyramid barely make any money as they try to promote the company. This is unfortunate as majority of people in a pyramid scheme are at the bottom.

Fortunately, Arbonne is not a pyramid scheme.

It is a multi level marketing company involved in direct sales.

Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a business model that generates revenue from both products and the recruitment of new distributors. In mlm companies the main focus is on selling products.

An Arbonne consultant can make money by selling Arbonne products and persuading other women to join.

An multi level marketing company and a pyramid scheme are similar in that once someone joins under you, you receive a percentage of what they earn. If they sign up more people below them, you get a cut of their sales as well. Just like a pyramid scheme, an MLM has few people at the top who earn huge amounts of money while the people at the bottom earn way less.

Conclusion: Is Arbonne mlm Legit?

Arbonne International LLC is a legit multi level marketing company.

If you are looking for an mlm company to join, then Arbonne is a good fit.

However, I would not recommend joining this online business as the cons are more than the pros and I do not think that it is worth the risk.

Arbonne consultants have a very high failure rate as the products they sell are quite costly thus making selling arbonne products quite difficult.

The company also claims to give consultants their own business when they are not even allowed to have their own online presence

Furthermore, many people in multi level marketing end up spending more money than they make which is a huge disadvantage.

Despite Arbonne’s lucrative compensation plan, most consultants do not earn enough money.

There are definitely better online businesses to join.

Before you leave

If you’re tired of scams and want a real solution for making money online check out my no.1 recommendation.

It’s helped me earn over $300,000 in the last 12 months alone:

Go here to see my no.1 recommendation for making money online

(This is a 100% free training)

David Fortune

David Fortune has been the editor NoBSIMReviews.com since 2019. He is an expert at writing content on stock advisory services, side hustles, reviewing online business opportunities and many more topics. You can learn more about David on our about us page.

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